Travellers walk with their luggage at Kuwait International airport (Reuters/Stephanie McGehee) / Reuters

Routine clinical screenings may be used to ‘detect’ homosexuals and bar them from entering Kuwait and other Gulf member states, according to a top Kuwaiti official.

A central committee tasked with the status of expatriates is set
to view the proposal on November 11.

“Health centers conduct the routine medical check to assess
the health of the expatriates when they come into the GCC
countries,” Yousuf Mindkar, the director of public health at
the Kuwaiti Health Ministry stressed.

“However, we will take stricter measures that will help us
detect gays, who will be then barred from entering Kuwait or any
of the GCC member states,” he added, quoted by a local daily
Al Rai.

He did not indicate what measures - or how physically intrusive -
these might be.

Homosexual acts are banned in the country, and the prison term
for them can be up to 10 years if the people involved were under
the age of 21.

In 2010, Kuwait banned the screening of a controversial Egyptian
film, saying that it promoted a culture of debauchery,
Gulfnews.com reported.

The movie was made in 2009 and addressed lifestyles centering on
drug use by young people, and lesbianism, a taboo subject in Arab
cinema and society.

A member of the censorship board said that some of the scenes
were “too hot” and that the lesbianism theme was “too
bold.” The member stressed that the scenario was very weak
and failed to address the controversial issues properly.

The situation doesn’t differ much in other Arab states in the
region: Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab
Emirates.

Five countries actually mete out the death penalty to gay people
– Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Yemen and Mauritania.

In Bahrain, lawmakers push for a crackdown on homosexuals,
including the adoption of tougher immigration measures and
deportations.

Two years ago, Bahrain arrested 127 people, mainly gays from the
Gulf countries, for holding a “depraved and decadent”
party.

The participants, most of them from 18 to 30 years old, hired a
sports hall in Hidd, a conservative village in the north of
Bahrain, and organized a fee-paying party that brought together
gay men from the Arabian Gulf countries.